Jeder kennt das – man kommt mit dem Zug irgendwo an und ist sich nicht sicher warum genau man aufgebrochen ist und, noch viel schlimmer, wie man wieder zurück kommen soll. Da bleibt dann nur noch eins: einfach loslaufen. Gesagt, getan. Am Freitag den 26.02.2021 um kurz vor 22 Uhr sind wir am HBF in Bonn aufgebrochen um nach Haus zu laufen und ins Wochenende starten zu können. Ein entspannendes und ruhiges Wochenende ist immer eine gute Sache.
Es zeigte sich: dieser quasi „Feierabendweg“ ist durchaus schon seit längerem bekannt und in Benutzung. Naja – zumindest ist er in Anlehnung an einen historischen Vorgang benannt: der Krönungsweg. Hauptwanderweg 10 aka. der nördlichste Ost-West-Weg des Eifelvereins.
Über den gesamten Verlauf stets gut beschildert wäre dieser Weg im ersten Drittel vielleicht noch für historische Kutschen geeignet gewesen (eher flach, breitere teils asphaltierte Wege und eher urban), zeigt jedoch ab dem zweiten Drittel langsam aber sicher das wunderschöne aber doch fordernde Gesicht der Nordeifel. Insgesamt eine abwechslungsreiche Tour die meist gut zu laufen ist und nur einen kleinen Trail-Anteil enthält.
Nach einer sehr müden und als sehr kalt empfundenen Nacht hatten wir das Glück ab dem Morgen und ca. der Hälfte der insgesamt 140 km Stefan Vilvo mit seinem zum VP umgebauten Auto begrüßen zu dürfen. Mit diesem Support auf der gesamten zweiten Laufhälfte konnte dann nichts mehr schief gehen. Wir mussten uns nur noch auf eine Sache konzentrieren: in Bewegung bleiben. Tausend Dank Stefan!
Zu zweit und doch nicht allein. Stefan Vilvo kam mit dem VP-Auto und der Kamera. Danke dafür! Fotos von Stefan.
Wo Stefan ist – ist seine Kamera nicht weit. Besten Dank für eine tolle Ausgabe Eifelimpressionen. Wenn da nur nicht ständig diese zwei Typen durch die Landschaft schleichen würden…
„Der „Krönungsweg“ ist der nördlichste Ost-West-Weg des Eifelvereins und ist in Anlehnung an den Weg der deutschen Könige zu ihrer Krönung in Aachen benannt. Er führt auf zehn Etappen vom Bonner Hauptbahnhof zur Kaiserstadt Aachen. Durch das Stadtgebiet Mechernich führt der Weg über insgesamt 24 Kilometer am Billiger Wald entlang, vorbei an Burg Zievel und Burg Satzvey zur 1000jährigen Eiche in Burgfey, durch den historischen Ortskern von Kommern, entlang an den Ufern des Mühlensees und des Bleibaches, über Hostel und Bleibuir bis zur Nationalparkgrenze bei Voißel.“ Quelle
Simple Rules: start an activity (run/walk) at each of the 24 daily hours in February 2021. Go outside. Cover each of the 7 days as well. Each of the activities needs a minimum of 45 min duration and a minimum of 5 km distance. Most horrible rule of all: there need to be a mandatory 90 min break between two activities where you need to wait (a long run with switching your watch on and off does not count for multiple hours). It is meant to break the routine and yes: it should feel a bit nasty – at least sometimes.
All started 2019 with a stupid idea and it was continued with success in 2020. Alex asked to take-over and push this „beautiful idea“ to the next level:
Die Aktion #aachenläuft ist eine schöne Idee und funktioniert technisch echt gut wenn man die Hinweise der Organisatoren zur Nutzung der App beachtet. So kann man ganz gemütlich am Hangeweiher 2 oder 4 Runden drehen, dabei etwas für den guten Zweck tun und in diesen verrückten Corona-Monaten etwas Zeit an der frischen Luft verbringen. Also Ihr Aachener – raus an den Weiher!
Das schöne Wetter am Wochenende war zu einladend – 68 Runden (17×9.2 km) auf der Strecke plus einige Runden unten am Weiher machen auch 100 Meilen voll. In 23 Stunden und 45 Minuten eine gegen Ende doch sehr anstrengende Angelegenheit. Vielen Dank an alle die vorbei geschaut haben und ganz besonders an Uwe. Wir haben uns das erste Mal gesehen, aber es brauchte nur kurz bis wir uns gut verstanden haben. #1 und #2 der Rangliste gemeinsam auf der Runde – das hat Spaß gemacht.
It is time to draw the line and to sum up a very interesting year 2020. With what was and is going on in this viral world I consider myself as extremely lucky: a few plans had to change a bit but I was able to start almost each and every run (one exception: TTdR100 was cancelled and will be held in 2021) on the 2020 agenda. It was a narrow escape.
In February we had our yearly edition of mAMa. Some said afterwards they got wet feet. But this can´t be true.
mAMa 2020 – for the beauty of it.
Next stop was #3 in the Legends Trail Slam series. It was the Legends Trail himself end of February. Lots of people told me stories about it before – to do it myself was way more intense compared with anything I did so far. Standing there in the pouring rain after 200k and 48h in the race – not able to locate CP4 for more then 10 minutes – this memory is still so present as if it happened yesterday. What a fool I was. How incapable, how destroyed. Leaving CP4 again to face night number 3 and 60 more kilometers without any sleep was probably THE moment of 2020. The turning point. It was a horrible night. It was a long night. It was surreal and half of the things I saw were hallucinations. But I met a few friends along the way – both running in my and in the opposite direction (LT500 course) and I knew somewhere deep down that the reward of going through that would last.
Montane Legends Trail LT250 2020
The recovery from the 261k Legends Trail took a very long time. In the new COVID-19 world running re-started with a few non-sense running challenges and finally, in June, we used a low-viral moment to meet for a group run and post LT discussions: UTDS Legends Edition. Finally some sleep in the Ardennes!
UTDS+2020: finally some rest and sleep.
It was a bit tough to wait for the final decision on whether or not the final run of the Legends Slam series could/would take place. At the end I was one of the lucky ones being able to participate in the physical edition of Another One Bites the Dust 2020. Only 13 runners in a format which was new to me. It was a very special race in multiple ways. At the end the Slam was done.
We did this. Another One Bites the Dust 2020.
September finally offered the chance to have the first long run together with Björn in 2020 – 150k GR Hageland – again in Belgium. It was good to run and walk together again.
150k GR Hageland, September 2020.
The final long run in 2020 was the attempt to finish the self-designed KATE180 run. Due to the new rules only the two of us started together – and DNFed after 100 miles. It was too much at the end. The track seems to be nice and covers a variety of beautiful sceneries. No one ever finished it though but I have the feeling that this may change in 2021.
KATE180 2020 DNF
In total 4 runs of 100 miles and more in 2020 setting the total count in this category to 18.
Shout outs to Björn, Maarten, Marek, Olav, „One-more-loop“ Jozef, Mike, Adrian, Stef, Tim and Fanny. We shared moments of 2020 together which will last. Thank you for the pushing, the challenges, the dedication, the nonsense, the support and the company.
Long distance running offered a new level of intensity this year. Not all of it was comfortable – some parts have been horrible and frightening. But it was a great feeling to understand that if I dig deep enough a reward waits at the end of all the suffering.
With all that said – there is one last really sad thing to say about 2020: no coke. Again. When will this end?
„And for some people, just to get back to camp alive is all they want in the world.“ Laz
Long story short – no finishers at KATE180 2020 „Corona-Edition“. We tried it and we failed. To not be able to finish a run you invented yourself is horrible and yet a bit satisfying.
In the last years we strived quite a lot through the KATE180 area. To finally combine it electronically was an extreme pleasure, to find out how it feels in real life was an eye-opener. The track offers a wide variety of different sceneries and undergrounds and a nice mixture of runnable parts and „are you kidding me?“ parts. Comforted by the DNF experience the track should be run in the direction we tried it. With Hautes Fagnes around 130k in. It is so beautiful up there and it looks like I used an almost non-existing trail up there to be part of the track. Water everywhere, mere traces of a trail, completely overgrown. The later in the run the better these parts feel.
Our reasons of failure have been diverse and do not matter. Either you are able to do it or you are not. Sometimes KATE180 has to win too.
What should have been a group run was cut down to the two of us – what should have been flexibel, spontaneous and for idiots only is now even more flexible and spontaneous. No idiots though.
In around two hours we will be off. Out there again. For no reason.
Although we may miss our friends we will try to have a fabulous time. It is time to start a new challenge – lets finally kick-off our Slam. It is the bond between ultra runners that unites and pushes us. In NL and DE there are in total 8 runners attempt to finish 200k+ distances starting today. Apart but united. Not noticed by many, understood from only a few. Amazing how quickly this escalated.
